The nation woke up yesterday to the horrific news about the mass shooting at the country music concert in Las Vegas. The nation’s worst mass shooting in American history shocked most of America, but it shouldn’t have.
64-year-old Stephen Paddock rented a corner suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Paddock, who lived in Mesquite, Nevada, managed to get around 19 weapons and ammunition up to his room. Sunday night, the three-day Route 91 country music festival, was concluding with the last performance, that of Jason Aldean.
At about 10:08pm Sunday, Paddock used a hammer or some other object to break out two windows of his suite. He then spent the next 8-12 minutes firing from his room into the concert crowd across the street from the resort. Witnesses said that shooting would periodically stop for a few seconds, where he was either reloading or grabbing another one of his weapons. The firing was obviously that of a fully automatic weapon, which is illegal in many places and highly restricted by the federal government.
The victim count continues to change, but at the time of this writing, it has been reported that 58 people had been killed and 515 others were injured, many in critical condition, meaning the death toll could continue to increase.
Authorities say that Paddock shot and killed himself, so they were never able to speak with him to find out his reason for the shooting. They are baffled as to what drove this man to commit such a heinous act.
While authorities may not know the motive, they ignore the real cause, which is why such bloodshed should not be as much of a surprise as everyone believes it to be.
